Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

He’d planned to make it a surprise engagement gift, but knew he had to get her to agree to put a ring on her finger before he could get her to really accept the car. He’d thought that was just a matter of getting past these auditions, but her complete rejection of the idea that she should judge in Ellie’s place baffled him. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He was pretty darn sure though that it was somehow directly connected to his ability to get said ring on her finger.

Jason opened his door and rounded the vehicle to Kat’s side of the car. She didn’t twitch a muscle when he reached for her. He carried her inside and thought about her comment. You’re always picking me up. Then his reply. So you can’t run from me. Was she running from him? Was he fooling himself into thinking everything was going to work out?

He set Kat on her bed and went so far as to remove her shoes and cover her. Still she slept. She was exhausted, he knew. She’d been tireless for weeks and it had clearly all just hit her now.

Jason didn’t lie down. He walked to the bathroom, cracked the door only slightly in case Kat called for him, and turned on the hot water. He pressed his hands on the sink and stared in the mirror. Directing had taught him that he could only do his best, and then what followed was what followed. Once something was on film, it was done, and he couldn’t change it. He’d applied that rule to his life and it had served him well. Except with Kat. He replayed the past far too often. She was right. He had regrets.

He stripped down and stepped under the water, letting it pour over him, trying to relax, when suddenly the curtain was pulled back and Kat, naked and beautiful, joined him. She wrapped her arms around him.

“I don’t want to go with you because I need you to know you can leave and I’ll still be here. And I need you to know that I’m not the same person I was when we divorced. I’ll understand. I’ll go to Europe this time, Jason, or wherever life leads us.”

“But you won’t take the judge’s job?”

“It hasn’t even been offered.”

“I can make it happen,” he said. “I think you know that. I want to make it happen.”

“Then how will you know that I’ll be okay the next time you have to leave?”

“Don’t you mean, how will you know?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.”

“You’re making this an obstacle course it doesn’t have to be. You’re scared, baby. I’m scared, too. Let’s be scared together. Say you’ll take the job.”

She scraped her bottom lip, a fretful look on her face, but she nodded her acceptance. “Yes. Yes, I’ll take it.”

Jason wasn’t sure if Kat had ever made him as happy as she did with those words. He held her in his arms and kissed her, having absolutely no intentions of sleeping, or allowing her to sleep, before he got on the plane later that day.

19

KAT WOKE CURLED at Jason’s side, her head on his shoulder. She inhaled, drawing in the rich male scent that was so him, so perfect, so… Suddenly, she realized a cell phone was ringing and she blinked into sunlight. Sunlight. She sat straight up, ignoring her nudity. “What time is it?”

Jason pressed to his elbows, his hair a rumpled, sexy mess, his eyes heavy with slumber. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

The phone kept buzzing. Kat scrambled over Jason, and grabbed it from the nightstand, and in the process, she launched her bare backside in the air. Jason smacked it.

“Hey!” she yelled over her shoulder, noting the clock with a cringe.

“I will happily wake up this way every day of my life,” he said, leaning up to kiss one cheek of her backside.

Kat snatched her phone and answered it. “Ellie. Hold on a second.” Kat covered the receiver and slid off Jason. “It’s noon. We have three hours until you leave.”

“Oh, crap,” he ground out. “Say it isn’t so.”

“I wish I could.” She didn’t even remember how they’d ended up asleep when they’d vowed not to. They’d made love. They’d made love again. They’d…fallen asleep talking.

“Are you okay, Ellie?” Kat asked, watching Jason scramble off the bed to pull on a pair of boxers.

“I’m fine,” she said. “David’s here and I’m busting out of this place any minute now.”

“You’re not going to the auditions?” Kat asked.

Jason tossed his bag on the bed. “Surely not?”

“No,” Ellie said and Kat shook her head to Jason’s question as Ellie continued, “I’m released to work but the doctor here doesn’t want me traveling and my regular doctor agrees. I’m supposed to limit my hours.”

“You can’t push it, Ellie,” Kat chided. “We just talked about this.”